LONDON BRONCOS 20 HALIFAX PANTHERS 14
HUW RICHARDS, Kuflink Stadium, Ebbsfleet, Saturday
EXILE suits London, who have used close on 30 venues in 45 seasons. And none of those homes from home has served it better than Ebbsfleet.
Previous exploits include the sport’s all-time record comeback against Sheffield in 2022 and beating classy Toulouse a year later. Both gave London vital mid-season momentum.
They’ll hope this victory, coming on top of their 72-point explosion last week at Hunslet, has a similar effect. Coach Mike Eccles, who has schemed a sequence of revivals, said “It’s always a pain getting here, but once we’re here we love it”.
There’s still a considerable gap to make up on the Championship’s mid-table, but Eccles is confident: “We’re all on board with the game plan. What you see is what you get.”
And what fans at Broncos’ refuge from reseeding at Plough Lane got was a tough, tight contest in which the Championship’s other exiles, temporarily Odsal-based Halifax, played their full part.
Their opening belied the form which has taken them from early season front-runners to hanging on desperately at the tail-end of the play-off places.
They dominated the early stages, grabbing a second-minute try with a classic dummy-half sneak by Adam O’Brien, converted by Jack Hansen.
Further scores were only thwarted by committed defence before a steady shift in the balance of play was rewarded by tries for London’s veteran props Lewis Bienek and Sadiq Adebiyi.
Bienek, in Eccles words ‘pretty undercooked’ after injuries, looked more like a centre than a prop in the 26th minute as he looped around Connor O’Beirne to take a return pass and score.
Jack Smith added the conversion to his ten goals last week at Hunslet, but was off for a head-injury assessment nine minutes later when London scored again.
O’Beirne, coming into himself after a long spell of injury, reversed the direction of attack deftly and found Adebiyi charging unstoppably to the line. Alex Walker converted to make it 12-6 at the break.
Halifax repeated their quick-score trick again after the break with Ben Crooks crossing, but Hansen missed the conversion. And they again had a territorial edge which was rewarded just after the hour when Hansen’s penalty-goal levelled the scores.
But it took only a couple of minutes for a late tackle to flatten O’Beirne and leave Smith the straightforward penalty which restored London’s lead.
And when Brandon Webster-Mansfield hurtled unstoppably onto a Walker pass to charge over for his first try for London, Smith’s conversion gave them an eight-point lead with as many minutes to go.
But Halifax also have spirit. Hansen cut the gap back to six when London were offside from the restart, and when London’s restart went dead, Panthers threatened to rescue the game.
It took a heroic tackle by Aaron Small to deny Ben Tibbs a try that would have given Hansen a chance to tie the scores from the right-hand touchline, and London hung on to win a match they would very likely have lost earlier in the season.
GAMESTAR: Connor O’Beirne led the way for London.
GAMEBREAKER: Aaron Small’s try-saving crash-tackle when Ben Tibbs was odds-on to score.
MATCHFACTS
BRONCOS
6 Luke Polselli
33 Jack Smith
4 Brandon Webster-Mansfield
20 Aaron Small
5 Liam Tindall
1 Alex Walker
7 Connor O’Beirne
12 Sadiq Adebiyi
9 Curtis Davies
10 Lewis Bienek
11 Will Lovell
3 Ethan Natoli
13 Marcus Stock
Subs
31 Joe Diskin
18 Ben Hursey-Hord
17 Jensen Monk (not used)
22 Matt Ross
Tries: Bienek (27), Adebiyi (35), Webster-Mansfield (72)
Goals: Smith 3/3, Walker 1/1
PANTHERS
23 David Nofoalama
2 Ben Tibbs
3 Charlie Graham
4 Ben Crooks
5 James Saltonstall
1 Louis Jouffret
7 Jack Hansen
33 Leon Cowen
9 Adam O’Brien
16 Ronan Dixon
19 Zack McComb
12 Adam Tangata
13 Jacob Fairbank
Subs (all used)
14 Tom Inman
17 Will Calcott
22 Maxime Jobe
34 Vila Halafihi
Tries: O’Brien (2), Crooks (42)
Goals: Hansen 3/4
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 6-6, 12-6; 12-10, 12-12, 14-12, 20-12, 20-14
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Broncos: Connor O’Beirne; Panthers: Jack Hansen
Penalty count: 4-7
Half-time: 12-6
Referee: Aaryn Belafonte